End-of-year celebration connects tutors with students they helped

Volunteers who helped tutor Dallas ISD students via a computer throughout the school year met with the students face-to-face at end-of-year celebrations across the district.

TutorMate is an online tutoring program that connects volunteers with first-grade students learning to read. Multiple Dallas-area businesses volunteered with Dallas ISD schools through TutorMate.

“TutorMate has successfully merged technology and tutoring to improve reading at some of our most at-need schools,” said Tom Hayden of Dallas ISD’s Volunteer and Partnership Services. “We are grateful to our TutorMate Business Volunteers for making this support available to the Dallas ISD.”

At an end-of-year celebration at T.G. Terry Elementary School, volunteer tutors from TIAA, a financial services organization, read and talked with the students they had worked with throughout the year.

“Through TutorMate, our employees can sit at their work desks and connect through a computer with students and help increase their reading level,” said Craig Kalman, a manager with TIAA. “It makes our employees feel good to help, and it boosts the students’ reading comprehension. It’s a win-win.”